US 'lethal' strikes target two vessels as Trump reiterates possibility of war with Venezuela
The US military has targeted two more vessels with "lethal" strikes as President Donald Trump reiterates the possibility of war with Venezuela.
In an NBC interview published on Friday, Trump left the possibility of war with Venezuela on the table.
"I don't rule it out, no," Trump said. He also declined to say whether he wants "regime change" in Venezuela.
Trump dramatically built up the US military presence in the Caribbean and Pacific in recent months, claiming he wanted to stop the drug-trafficking into the United States.
At the same time, American forces have carried out numerous strikes on alleged drug boats since September, killing scores of smugglers.
Last week, however, the US forces took control of an oil tanker leaving the South American nation and Trump said there would be further seizures of oil tankers that were exporting oil from the Latin American country with the world's largest proven oil reserves.
Trump said Venezuela is "taking" US oil, apparently referring to the nationalization of the country's oil industry decades ago.
"They took all of our energy rights, they took all of our oil, from not that long ago, and we want it back," Trump said on Wednesday.
The US president has also been saying for weeks that he will "soon" start land attacks against targets in Venezuela.
In the meantime, the US military said it killed five alleged drug traffickers aboard two vessels in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday.
The US military's Southern Command claimed on X that the latest attacks hit two allegedly "narco-trafficking" boats in international waters.
Three people were killed in the first vessel and two in the second vessel, it said, raising the death toll from US strikes to 104 people, according to an AFP tally based on official data, since the start of the campaign in September.
The Trump administration has provided no evidence that the almost 30 targeted boats since September in the Pacific and Caribbean and the victims on them were involved in drug trafficking.
Law experts have questioned the legality of the US strikes, prompting accusations of a possible war crime. Also, Democratic lawmakers have maintained that the Trump administration needs congressional authorization to use the military for the purported anti-drug campaign.
The House of Representatives rejected two Democratic resolutions on Wednesday aimed at halting the strikes and "hostilities in or against Venezuela" without its authorization.
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